CLEVELAND — Cleveland’s leaf pickup is back on after a last-minute cancellation of the program earlier this week.
News 5 Investigators have learned the City was inundated with calls and emails about the sudden move to stop the service.
The reversal was announced less than 24 hours after News 5 Investigators pressed Mayor Justin Bibb about public pushback.
The city says the decision was discussed yesterday and finalized last night.
It is a relief to people who already put in the work and some who thought they had to do a whole lot more.
It’s music to one's ears. Maybe not the leaf blower, but most certainly the news we broke to Joseph Greene about lead pick-up being back on.
“Ah, okay that's good I'm happy,” said Greene.
Greene was out in his leaf-blanketed yard in Old Brooklyn thinking about buying bags.
"I thought I don't know what I'm going to do I was amazed I was a little mad,” said Greene.
RELATED: City of Cleveland walks back curbside leaf pickup program, cancels it altogether
Cleveland abruptly canceled curbside leaf pickup. When we asked the mayor about it Thursday, he quickly ended our brief conversation.
Can you say if you've been inundated with calls people are upset?
“Thanks, appreciate it,” said Mayor Bibb.
The city now tells News 5 Investigators, many calls came into 311.
The Mayor’s office got nearly 100 emails and the departments of community relations and aging also got numerous calls.
"We heard from seniors, people with disabilities, folks who felt like I already did this task and now you're pulling the rug out from under me at the last minute,” said Ward 12 Councilwoman Rebecca Maurer.
The city says the mayor and council president discussed how to still provide the service and ways to improve it. Staff also reviewed equipment readiness, staffing levels and previously scheduled work to see how it would all fit.
"I do think there was a concern about the staffing to prepare for snow removal,” said Maurer.
When News 5 Investigators asked the mayor about why the change, he said they wanted to make sure there was enough manpower for snow and ice season and not everyone gets leaf pickup.
"I do have a blower, but I like to rake them up like this,” said Adam Ford.
Ford lives on the Glenville-Collinwood line.
"I've never had leaf pickup over here that I could remember,” said Ford.
But he says it would be nice.
"It's going to take me a while. I already got four bags here,” he said.
As a senior, Ford spreads out the work to rake leaves over days.
"Cleveland's such a large area, east side, west side, south side, it's a lot of area. I don't know how many trucks they're going to have out to do it,” said Ford.
Maurer gave his potential solution as well.
"I think there should be two approaches: either everyone has leaf pickup that's loose leaf or everyone does bagged leaf pickup and we have to pick one of those routes for the entire city and let people know ahead of time,” said Maurer.
The less stress on the mind, body and wallet the better for Greene.
"I'm glad that he decided to put it back on because we pay taxes for this stuff you know,” said Greene.
The city told us Mayor Bibb was not available to speak with us today. City council expects there will be a discussion about leaf pickup at a future meeting.
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